Should you use the Bow or the Musket in New World?

When it comes to weapons, New World has several options for you. If you wish to engage your foe from a distance, you can use the magical abilities of the Fire Staff or Ice Gauntlet. But, if you’re a fan of some old-school armaments, you’ll probably consider the Bow or the Musket instead. So, should you use the Bow or Musket in New World? Which one is better? Let’s find out.

Which ranged weapon in New World is better: The Bow or the Musket?

Both the Bow and the Musket weapons in New World rely on Dexterity as a primary attribute. However, the Musket also scales from Intelligence as a secondary stat. While these weapons allow you to keep away from enemies, they have their own quirks that make their playstyles vastly different.

When speaking about the best Bow build in New World, we highlighted the abilities that you can choose from the Skirmisher and Hunter skill trees. The former is for evasion and maneuverability, though there are also some AoE and debuffing options. The latter, meanwhile, is for pure sustained damage. Then for the best Musket build, we mentioned what you can expect from the Sharpshooter and Trapper skill trees. The Sharpshooter perks are all about landing headshots consistently, and the Trapper abilities are for crowd control and AoE.

Both weapons require ammunition (i.e., arrows for the Bow and cartridges/bullets for the Musket). But, there are also differences when it comes to mechanical actions. The Bow is significantly easier to use since reloading (i.e., nocking and drawing your arrow) takes a split second. Your character also does this automatically even if you dodge. In comparison, the Musket’s reload time takes a bit longer (roughly almost two seconds by default). Moreover, the reloading animation will be canceled if you dodge. Simply put, the Bow has a faster rate-of-fire (ROF) compared to the Musket.

As for DPS, if we disregard each weapon’s strength or other possible buffs, the Bow will outperform the Musket by a long shot (pun intended) if you’re more mobile on the battlefield or if you’re casually PvPing. With faster ROF and maneuverability, you can let your arrows loose more often.

However, the Musket will pull ahead in stationary engagements, especially in PvE. If you have a dedicated tank or a melee fighter buddy, they can pull aggro from enemies. While your targets are distracted, you can land consistent headshots to make the most out of procs. Unfortunately, you’re going to get trounced if you’re soloing. The slow reload times will mean that foes can close the gap too quickly before you could even get another headshot.